Spectral elements are a potential alternative to the spectral transform method widely used in atmospheric general circulation models. A semi-implicit formulation permits larger time steps than an explicit formulation. Thus, a semi-implicit 3D spectral-element dynamical core should achieve high performance levels on microprocessor-based parallel clusters and substantially accelerate the climate simulation rate.

The spectral element method offers distinct advantages for geophysical simulations, including geometric flexibility, accuracy, and scalability. Developers of atmospheric and oceanic models are capitalizing on these properties to create new models that can accurately and effectively simulate multiscale flows in complex geometries.

The general circulation model, developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for climate simulations and other meteorological applications, emphasizes conservative and monotonic transport and achieves sufficient accuracy for the global consistency of climate processes.

Interactions between the atmosphere, ocean,ice, land surface, and the marine and terrestrial biosphere control the global climate system. These components are coupled by the exchange of momentum, radiative energy, and trace constituents' mass. Various processes drive this exchange and require different computational methods to model it.

Model validation is a crucial process that underpins model development and gives confidence to the results from running models. This article discusses a range of techniques for validating atmosphere models given that the atmosphere is chaotic and incompletely observed.